Our Thinking
The World Through our Lens
Kaleidoscope is a CPG packaging design and prototyping agency headquartered in Chicago. We’re makers, thinkers, and opinionated observers of everything packaging. Here’s what’s on our minds — from design trends and sustainability to the forces reshaping consumer goods. For a deeper look at our capabilities, visit: strategy, packaging design, and prototyping.
Latest Perspectives
June 23, 2026
CPG innovation has never moved this fast, and for most teams, the process still hasn’t caught up. Here’s why speed is the defining factor in modern product development, and what it takes to actually move at the pace the market demands.
Is Packaging Part of the Product?
We’ve seen this question posed a lot lately. Great packaging can be the front door to a great product. Sometimes the packaging is the product – think travel cargo pants that zip out of one of the pockets. Other times, the packaging is integral to the product...
Naming a Brand: Top 5 Research and Selection Considerations
Brand Strategy TOP 5 RESEARCH AND SELECTION CONSIDERATIONS Kaleidoscope September 18, 2012 Naming research is tricky. It’s not quite the same as traditional advertising or even packaging design research. If you’re looking for a winner, then you will undoubtedly be...
Why Process is Threatening Creativity: Using Co-Creation & Iterative Design Thinking to Build Tomorrow’s Successful Brands
On Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012 our own CEO Gary Chiappetta, with Steve Jones, CEO of Fair Oaks Farms Brands, Inc. will be speaking at this year's Brand Packaging: Packaging That Sells Conference in Chicago, IL. Brand Packaging follows a mission to elevate the...
4 Ways To Land A Design Job From Your Summer Internship
Having real-world experience in your chosen field can be infinitely helpful when it comes to landing a job in the future. Not only does it inform your perspective employer that you have valuable work experience, but it also helps you grow as a designer. There is...
Welcoming Kaleidoscope's New Industrial Design Team!
Kaleidoscope welcomes Aldis Rauda as Director of Industrial Design and Product Development, Jihoon Kim as Industrial Designer, and Jennifer Bae as Junior Industrial Designer! Now let's get to know our new industrial design team a little better... Aldis’ educational...
From Grass to Glass
Shake It Up How do you create a stand-out brand in a sleepy category? How do you get consumers to notice something new in a category they’ve dismissed as a commodity or one that lacks innovation? How do you harness a multi-dimensional brand character in a single...
Inspired by FUSE: Design Thinking = Thinking Differently
Transcend the norm. Step out of your comfort zone. Change the conversation. Stop concentrating on how things are supposed to be. Discipline. Grit. This year’s FUSE conference invited us to open the door to new inspiration, new points of view and new ways of...
Brand Trends: How To Set Strategic Growth Targets
Part One: Setting strategic growth targets Delivering consistent quality that consumers can trust. The mission of private brands is no longer centered on finding ways to make a few extra cents by giving consumers less expensive, look-alike alternatives to national...
Moving Downstream Intelligence Upstream
Article Published in Packaging Digest MagazineSeptember 2011 Issue Designing with the end-in-mind reduces production bottlenecks, speeds time-to-shelf and disrupts the market in the process. In today’s crowded markets, differentiation is increasingly important to...
Dyson's new all season fan. We think it is cool, but some think it is HOT.
The makers of the bag-less vacuum cleaner are at it again with their blade-less fan. Not only is the new Dyson Hot unique in its form and function, but the innovative design resembles that of a portal in which could be used for transport to another world. The design...
This is heavy! Nike Unveil's Marty McFly's Shoe from Back to the Future II
If you are a fan of the Back to the Future series, you will recall the space age and futuristic kicks adorned by Marty McFly in part II of the trilogy. Sometimes fiction doesn't always stay fiction. Nike has just stepped back in time, or is it forward in time? The...
Budweiser’s New Bowtie: Will the brand still be the Clydesdale or become the goat?
Thoughts by Guy Gangi, Director of Brand Strategy, Planning and Design Budweiser this week unveiled a new can design, which has only been modified 12 times since it first hit the market in 1936. The new face of the brand is causing shockwaves through the design...